Get the latest scoop on products, strategy, events, news, and more, from Oracle's virtualization experts

Thursday Jun 28, 2012

At Catholic Education South Australia, more than 6,000 staff care for over 48,000 students in 103 schools. In this short video, listen to their CIO Tom Mittiga, talk about how Catholic Education South Australia leverages Oracle Secure Global Desktop to provide services anytime, anywhere and with exceptional performance!

Tuesday Jun 26, 2012

For customers using Oracle Secure Global Desktop version 4.6x, one of the issues reported is the improper rendering of the administration console when using modern browser versions such as Safari 5, Firefox 4+ or Internet Explorer 9. We are pleased to provide a fix for use of these modern browser versions when using Oracle Secure Global Desktop 4.6x. Please refer to Doc ID 1367923.1 on My Oracle Support (requires a My Oracle Support account to login). The solution involves a new .jar file, oracletheme.jar and following a few simple instructions.

Download the new oracletheme.jar to /tmp and backup the existing one located at

Friday Jun 22, 2012

Today, we are proud to announce the general availability of Oracle VM 3 templates for Oracle Secure Global Desktop version 4.62.

With Oracle VM 3 templates, anyone using Oracle VM 3 need not download, install and configure the supported operating system and the Oracle product(s) individually. In this case, the supported operating system (Oracle Linux 5.7), and the Oracle Secure Global Desktop 4.62 product is packaged together into a template that one can easily import and clone from as a virtual machine in Oracle VM 3. This results in a nearly instant deployment and configuration of Oracle Secure Global Desktop within Oracle VM 3.

This means drastically reducing the evaluation and deployment time for Oracle Secure Global Desktop when leveraging Oracle VM 3. Feel free to give it a try!

Once the virtual machine is created and starts up, make sure you enter the networking parameters (hostname, IP address, netmask, gateway etc), and optional user parameters correctly. You must also enter a root password during first boot. And that's it - the Oracle Secure Global Desktop install script will automatically pick up the networking parameters, prompt for confirmation and complete a default installation.

Friday Jul 01, 2011

Oracle Virtualization, through simplified Oracle application deployment and access, is key to understanding the power and value of Oracle's full stack. Last week, I deployed and accessed an Oracle application using Oracle's virtualization products. As part of this exercise, I got to build a simple Oracle 'full stack' from ground up using bare metal servers, Oracle VM, NFS, Oracle VM application templates, Oracle Linux and Oracle Secure Global Desktop. In the end, what struck me is not only how easily I was able to deploy the application, but also how quickly I was able to simplify problems related to the access of the application by 'publishing' it.

Oracle VM Templates provide an innovative approach to deploying a fully configured software stack by offering pre-installed and pre-configured software images.I started with the Siebel SIA 8.1.1 application template. Deciding what template you want to use early in the process is key, since it will help determine how many servers (memory), and IP addresses you need. In my case, the Siebel template consists of 2 virtual machines (each needing at least 2GB memory). My Dell servers have only 4GB memory each, so clearly I needed 2 servers and 4 static IPs (2 for the servers, and 2 for the VMs).

I got 2 Dell servers, installed Oracle VM 2.2.2 on them, followed the instructions in the post-installation check-list for Oracle VM 2.2.2 and mounted my storage repositories (NFS). I installed Oracle VM manager on a 3rd machine running Oracle Linux. Using the Oracle VM manager, I created a pool and added the 2 servers into the pool. Once the pool is created - I followed the instructions in the template's installation guide on downloading, and installing the template. There's a bit of an upfront effort to get this going, but becomes much easier over time. Note: In case the template has an expired license key, you can get the latest key here and follow the instructions from the readme on edelivery (search for the Oracle VM template download) on updating the license key.

Once I got the application deployed, I launched it in a supported web browser (IE 7) on my PC and immediately noticed I had to install a Siebel activeX plugin, and fix some of my browser settings before I could start using the application. Imagine what the situation would be if users' PCs didn't have a supported browser or settings in the first place. I then installed Oracle Secure Global Desktop on my Oracle Linux system and added a Windows Server 2003 machine as a hosted application server (this version of Siebel requires IE7). Using Oracle Secure Global Desktop's webtop interface, I accessed the Siebel Application through a published browser (IE 7) that had Siebel's activeX plugin pre-installed and browser settings configured for Siebel . With that, I completed my full stack deployment.

I believe that setups similar to the one above would enable our customers and partners to evaluate Oracle Applications much quicker, and also obtain valuable insights during the evaluation period on how they could use Oracle Virtualization to simplify deployment and access for Oracle Applications.

Friday May 27, 2011

Development Infrastructure Services, a division within Oracle’s Product Development IT group (Oracle PDIT) serves thousands of developers worldwide every day. It manages and supports the infrastructure required for product development teams within Oracle working on Oracle Fusion, Oracle E-Business Suite and various other Oracle Applications. One of the biggest challenges software development organizations face today is how to provide software developers centralized access to their specific developer environments from any location, reliably and with no performance degradation.

Oracle’s Product Development IT group has addressed these and many other problems with Oracle Secure Global Desktop. This is one of the largest deployments of Oracle Secure Global Desktop. If thousands of Oracle's own software developers use Oracle Secure Global Desktop on a daily basis, there’s no reason why many other large enterprises can't use it as well! Read more here

Thursday Feb 17, 2011

The HIMSS Conference is an extremely important industry trade show put on by The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. It's being held in Florida starting this Sunday, February 20th. Their slogan, "Linking people, potential, and progress" could be true of Oracle desktop virtualization as well! The Oracle desktop virtualization group has worked very closely with the Oracle healthcare business unit to have a large presence at this show, and I wanted to tell you a bit about what we're doing:

- All Oracle demos are being done on Sun Ray ClientsThat's right, every demo pod in the large Oracle booth will have a Sun Ray Client with each demo tied to a smart card. Too many people at your demo station? Pop your card out and go to a different one. We'll also be demoing Oracle desktop virtualization at a dedicated demo station, too. This is great stuff!

- Focus Group - Caregiver Mobility with Oracle Sun Ray Clients and Desktop Virtualization
Feb 22, 3:15-4:15 PM
This focus group will be for customers interested in Oracle desktop virtualization. It's invitation only, but you can comment on this blog post and we can give you info on how to attend (your comment won't be made public).

- New healthcare solutions page on oracle.com
We've created a page dedicated to content involving desktop virtualization and healthcare. This will be your onestop shop if looking for desktop virtualization and healthcare information.

Monday Feb 14, 2011

If you're interested in virtualization, be sure to catch our two free webinars this week. You'll hear directly from Oracle technologists and can ask questions in a live Q&A.

Deploying Oracle VM Templates for Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Applications
Tuesday, Feb 15, 2011
9AM Pacific TimeRegister Now
Is your company trying to manage costs; meet or beat service level agreements and get employees up and running quickly on business-critical applications like Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise Applications? The fastest way to get the benefits of these applications deployed in your organization is with Oracle VM Templates. Cut application deployment time from weeks to just hours or days. Attend this session for the technical details of how your IT department can deliver rapid software deployment and eliminate installation and configuration costs by providing pre-installed and pre-configured software images.

Increasing Desktop Security for the Public Sector with Oracle Desktop Virtualization
Thursday, Feb 17, 2011
9AM Pacific TimeRegister Now
Security of data as it moves across desktop devices is a concern for all industries. But organizations such as law enforcement, local, state, and federal government and others have higher security ne! eds than most. A virtual desktop model, where no data is ever stored on the local device, is an ideal architecture for these organizations to deploy. Oracle's comprehensive portfolio of desktop virtualization solutions, from thin client devices, to sever side management and desktop hosting software, provide a complete solution for this ever-increasing problem.

Thursday Jan 20, 2011

We're very excited to tell you about our virtualization event series that are currently touring around the US. The seminars are free half-day events covering Oracle's server, desktop, and hardware virtualization products and strategy.

If you're looking to expand virtualization in your enterprise or understand more of Oracle's view on virtualization, these seminars aren't to be missed. Here is a complete list of the upcoming events:

Wednesday Dec 22, 2010

Between all the press coverage on the unauthorized release of 251,287 diplomatic documents and on previous extensive releases of classified documents on the events in Iraq and Afghanistan, one could be forgiven for thinking massive leaks are really an issue for governments, but it is not: It is an issue for corporations as well.

In fact, corporations are apparently set to be the next big target for things like Wikileaks. Just the threat of such a release against one corporation recently caused the price of their stock to drop 3% after the leak organization claimed to have 5GB of information from inside the company, with the implication that it might be damaging or embarrassing information.

At the moment of this blog anyway, we don't know yet if that is true or how they got the information but how did the diplomatic cable leak happen?

For the diplomatic cables, according to press reports, a private in the military, with some appropriate level of security clearance (that is, he apparently had the correct level of security clearance to be accessing the information...he reportedly didn't "hack" his way through anything to get to the documents which might have raised some red flags...), is accused of accessing the material and copying it onto a writeable CD labeled "Lady Gaga" and walking out the door with it. Upload and... Done.

In the same article, the accused is quoted as saying "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain."

Now think about all the confidential information in your company or non-profit... from credit card information, to phone records, to customer or donor lists, to corporate strategy documents, product cost information, etc, etc.... And then think about that last quote above from what was a very junior level person in the organization...still feeling comfortable with your ability to control all your information?

So what can you do to guard against these types of breaches where there is no outsider (or even insider) intrusion to detect per se, but rather someone with malicious intent is physically walking out the door with data that they are otherwise allowed to access in their daily work?

A major first step it to make it physically, logistically much harder to walk away with the information. If the user with malicious intent has no way to copy to removable or moble media (USB sticks, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, or even laptop disk drives) then, as a practical matter it is much more difficult to physically move the information outside the firewall. But how can you control access tightly and reliably and still keep your hundreds or even thousands of users productive in their daily job?

Users can securely access all the data they need to do their job, whether from work, from home, or on the road and in the field, but fully configurable policies set up centrally by privileged administrators allow you to control whether, for instance, they are allowed to print documents or use USB devices or other removable media. Centrally set policies can also control not only whether they can download to removable devices, but also whether they can upload information (see StuxNet for why that is important...)

In fact, by using Sun Ray Client desktop hardware, which does not contain any disk drives, or removable media drives, even theft of the desktop device itself would not make you vulnerable to data loss, unlike a laptop that can be stolen with hundreds of gigabytes of information on its disk drive. And for extreme security situations, Sun Ray Clients even come standard with the ability to use fibre optic ethernet networking to each client to prevent the possibility of unauthorized monitoring of network traffic.

But even without Sun Ray Client hardware, users can leverage Oracle's Secure Global Desktop software or the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client to securely access server-resident applications, desktop sessions, or full desktop virtual machines without persisting any application data on the desktop or laptop being used to access the information. And, again, even in this context, the Oracle products allow you to control what gets uploaded, downloaded, or printed for example.

Another benefit of Oracle's Desktop Virtualization and access products is the ability to rapidly and easily shut off user access centrally through administrative polices if, for example, an employee changes roles or leaves the company and should no longer have access to the information.

Oracle's Desktop Virtualization suite of products can help reduce operating expense and increase user productivity, and those are good reasons alone to consider their use. But the dynamics of today's world dictate that security is one of the top reasons for implementing a virtual desktop architecture in enterprises.

Tuesday Nov 09, 2010

In addition to the server virtualization webinar we blogged about yesterday, we are also putting on a desktop virtualization webinar next week, as well. You can join us on Thursday, Nov. 18 at 9am US PT as we discuss how to increase security and simplify user access to your Oracle Applications by using Oracle Secure Global Desktop to provide a consistent user interface across a variety of client platforms.

Friday Jul 16, 2010

We're pretty excited about the Sun Ray Server Software and Thin Client hardware, as we are about the desktop in general: Windows desktops, Linux workstations, Solaris...all of it. We can deliver it all (not just Windows like those other guys...) through our Sun Ray and/or VDI infrastructure products. (And for those of you that are more comfortable around a terminal/remote services model, we've got our Secure Global Desktop software from Sun's acquisition of Tarantella so you can access just about any kind of server-resident application or desktop even if they are not browser based. Or even if they are...stop worrying about client hardware browser dependencies and just use a single version of the Secure Global Desktop web client to access a broad range of browser versions when your desktop browser standard doesn't match with what your app requires.)

Anyway. I digress from the main point of my entry here which is to show you yet another proof point for Oracle's love of the desktop. At great risk to my career, I slid into my bosses office (Wim Coekaerts, Senior Vice President for Linux and Virtualization Development and Support) and snapped a picture of his office, and published it here for the first time anywhere...

Now anyone that knows Wim knows he's pretty solidly into the category of the neo-maxi-zoom-techno-geek. He LOVES to play around with the products in his group. And by play around, I don't just mean "use". I mean install, configure, hack-on, etc. He's loving this stuff and thinks and talks about it with great passion as you might guess by looking at his office.

We have a lot of plans for this space and you've already started to see- and hear about some of them.

We recently released the new Sun Ray 3+ Client (shown) with its higher security, more eco-friendliness, and higher powered support for displays. In fact, you can see in the spy shot, that Wim is taking advantage of the fact that the Sun Ray natively supports up to two 30" displays without any additional graphics adapter required so you can have a 60 inch wide desktop if you want! (I think his is only 41 or 42 inch here though...). Aside: Cool Sun Ray trick: you can actually then combine up to 16 Sun Rays, with 2 displays each into one massive, 32 display wall of Sun Ray desktop greatness! Now that's a big desktop!

We also just announced a new release of the Sun Ray Server Software ("shown") to support VMware View 4 as the VDI back-end, as well as an update to the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client (to access your Sun Ray and VDI desktops from your desktop/laptop) with the update now providing support from Mac clients.

And, certainly, last but not least, we've done a number of Oracle VM VirtualBox enhancements to support even more feature rich usage on desktops and as a part of our Oracle VDI solution where it hosts the VMs and that uniquely allows us to support not only Windows desktops, but also Linux and Solaris Workstations...all with RDP! That's handy if you got a lot of "normal" desktops to virtualize but also, say, want to virtualize all the workstations your developers use that run Linux or Solaris.

Now...hold on a second here...aside from the Linux Penguin Lamp and the Iron Man movie poster (staring Larry Ellison!!!!)...what else interesting can we see in this picture? Well, I did have to blur out the [TOP SECRET] in this picture, otherwise this truly would be a career-limiting blog entry. So, for now, let's just say we're not standing still my friends...

Friday Feb 26, 2010

Now that the Sun acquisition has closed, and we are one company, we can start talking to you about all the exciting things available in today's Oracle VM product line and where we are going. In the coming days and weeks, you can expect to see a number of new blog entries from a number of voices that may be new to this Oracle blog, but are definitely not new to virtualization. We are tremendously excited to combine our portfolios and work side-by-side with our extremely talented Sun brethren to advance the state-of-the art in virtualization.

As others have said across the industry, particularly with the Sun acquisition, Oracle has the greatest collection of products and technologies in the industry to take virtualization to the next level and enable truly integrated, comprehensive solutions for customers. From the beginning, we've said that Oracle virtualization is not about virtualization for virtualization's sake: it's about creating virtualization products and technologies that make applications and other software easier to deploy, easier to manage, and easier to support. That strategy is unwaivering and is bolstered with the addition of the Sun products.

First, let's dispel some rumors right off the bat to make it crystal clear what we are driving forward and continuing to invest in vigorously in the virtualization space (in no particular order...):

If anyone tells you they heard one of these products is no longer important or not moving forward at Oracle, it is simply not true. Please point them to this blog entry.

But - Adam - what about the Sun xVM server you ask? Sun's xVM server was never fully released and productized by Sun while Oracle VM, Oracle's own x86 server virtualization with a Xen-based architecture has been shipping and running in production for just over 2 1/2 years and thus Oracle VM for x86/x64 will continue to be Oracle's target of strategic investment in the Xen-architecture space.

Last, but very definitely not least, management: Management is, in fact, a huge part of our focus with Oracle VM Manager, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Ops Center so rest assured on that front as well that these products and investments will flourish.

Not only are we investing in all these things, you'll see quite a bit of activity in the space in the coming months and across the year, so please keep an eye on this blog. We'll have a number of entries to go into more thoughts on each of the products I've listed above and then some.

Finally, if you haven't already, you should definitely watch our strategy
webcast with Oracle's Chief Architect Edward Screven talking about our
virtualization direction. That can be found here (opens a new Flash window) to hear a more detailed presentation covering these products. You should also take a look at the Management strategy here.